There are no Secrets to getting a Sixpack
All you have to do is; Go to the store, pick one up and pay for it at the register!
Sorry, I just had to.. 
There is allot of truth to the saying; “Abs are made in the kitchen”.
It doesn`t matter how many crazy ab-exercises you do or if you just bought the latest “300 warrior spartan ab-shredder program”! If your mid-section is covered with blubber, it is because you eat to damn much!
I don`t care if you say you “eat healthy” and have bad genes! If you have lard covering your abs, you are still putting too much food into your pie-hole!
Why diet alone is a bad idea
Yes, if you clean up your eating habits, eat more fruits and greens, get plenty of protein and make sure you are in a calorie deficit, your fat will start melting of. No doubt!
Problem is, most people use the scale to measure progress and hate strenuous exercise. What often ends up happening is a massive weight loss the first couple of weeks followed by a complete stall. Why is that?
Well, when you clean up your diet, eat more balanced meals that is not crammed with sugar, fat and salt, you hold less water = your weight drops fast.
In addition, a “diet” often involves some type of training. It might have been some time since the last time you worked out, so you will probably gain some muscle in the beginning. This is why the scale suddenly stops going down after a couple of weeks. Some of your fat is used for muscle building fuel.
This could lead to frustration, causing you to cut even more down on your calories. What do you think this results in? Less energy, less motivation and probably more cardio, you know, to burn more fat..right?
Wrong! This will probably make the weight go down again but what are you losing? Water, fat, muscle?
Probably all of the above. And that aint a good thing!
Your muscles are the fat burning factories. Going very low on calories and doing massive amounts of cardio will kill your fat burning factories! It is a sure fire way to becoming skinny-fat! The worst of the worst! Tiny amounts of muscle covered with a layer of fat, giving you that skinny, squishy body, and you still only have a four-pack!
Get your Sixpack with Deadlifts
Because our bodies accommodate to the external forces we put it through, you will lose muscle mass if you are in a calorie deficit and do not do strength training. Your body is not getting enough energy in comparison to your activity level, so it has to get rid of some energy-needy mass.. guess what it will pick? Yepp! It will start chewing into your muscles! And since your muscles do not get any stress put on them through strength training, the choice becomes even more logical: “Body mass that needs lots of energy to be sustained AND that is not being stimulated to grow, let`s burn it!”.
Compound exercises such as; deadlifts, squats, chinups, the bench press and rowing exercises, are great for losing that sixpack-covering-flubber:
- Compound exercises will stimulate more muscles fibers.
Compound exercises involve movement of more then one joint. This means more muscle are being contracted and more muscle fibers are stimulated. If you are doing a isolated bicep curl, the only movement will occur in your elbow joint, causing your bicep to contract. However, if you do a chinup, movement will occur in your shoulder- and elbow joint, causing contraction in many of your back muscles (prime mover is the Latissimus Dorsi) AND your biceps. When you do a chinup, allot more muscle fibers are stimulated witch in turn will cause greater fat loss through higher energy expenditure and more muscle growth because of higher total stimuli.
- Compound exercise give you more bang for your buck.
Since compound exercises activate more muscle fibers, you are doing more work in less time! This means that you are getting better results while spending less time in the gym! Instead of doing 8-15 exercises to hit all your targeted muscles, you get away with 3-5 total exercises per session!
- Compound exercise give a larger release of testosterone and growth hormone.
Another benefit of compound exercises is that they cause the greatest release of hormones in your body. Doing intense deadlifts will cause a great release of testosterone and growth hormone, two hormones that will help burn fat and build muscle.
- Compound exercises also reduce the risk of over-training.
A big reason why people are having a hard time getting results, is that they actually work out too much. If you are using single body part programs, many muscles will get trained too many times per week with too much volume. An example could be that you are doing a chest workout one day followed by a tricep and bicep workout the next day. During your chest workout your triceps also has to do a ton of work (since you probably are doing some bench-press type of exercises). Doing isolation exercises for the triceps the next day will most likely be overkill. This will hurt your recovery time and you run a higher risk of becoming over-trained. Couple this with a low calorie diet and you are about to run straight into a wall.
If you instead use compound exercises you can create a 4 day upper/lower split or a 3 day full body split, giving you maximum recovery in every workout week.
- Compound exercises give you more time to focus on the important stuff.
Since you are spending less time in the weight room you can grant your self more time with your family, focus more on cleaning up your diet and work on your flexibility.
Stretching is often totally overlooked and it can be a great way to recover and avoid future injuries. Greater range of motion means less chance of getting a muscle sprain.
Spending more time with your family keeps your mind on something other then your training and your diet. This means less stress and a higher chance of you actually sticking to your plan = greater results!
Get your Sixpack in 6 Weeks!
How long it takes for your abs to show is very individual and often require a very low body fat percentage. Losing body fat while maintaining muscle mass is something that takes time. If you try to rush it, you will probably do more damage then good, resulting in two steps back instead of one step forward.
A realistic pace, according to me, is to lose 0,5kg fat per week. This is not easy and you have to be very committed to your plan to achieve such a rate.
You should get a fat caliper and measure your self every week. Better yet, get your fat caliper measurement taken by an experienced personal trainer. Like we talked about earlier, the scale really is no good if you have no way of measuring your fat percentage.
Your Sixpack Plan
- Start eating whole foods such as; beef, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, cut waaay back on snacks and foods that contain lots of salt, sugar and saturated fats (save those snacks for the weekend) and drink mostly water (at least beverages that do not contain lots of calories, like soda, milkshake etc.).
- Check out Intermittent Fasting, it might just make your fat loss journey allot easier.
- Design a 4 day upper-/lower-body split routine (or a 3 day full-body split) that contain mostly (only) compound exercises.
- Do some light cardio (like brisk uphill walking) 2-4 times per week to increase your energy expenditure. These sessions could last for anything between 20 minutes to 1 hour depending on your endurance, ability to recover and time available. Do not obsess about this, the strength sessions are the important ones, this is just bonus-training.
- Have your fat percentage measured every week to gauge your progress and adjust your diet according to the results.
- Do not over complicate things and become another victim of “paralysis by analysis”. Stick to the plan and keep your mind on other things then training and diet when you are not in the gym.
